


Double the partners, double the love

by StrangeNoise



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Android illnesses, Annoying cashiers, Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Everyone is very much in love with each other, F/M, Fluff, Grocery Shopping, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Pillow & Blanket Forts, Polyamorous relationship, Polyamory, Post-Canon, Prejudices against poly relationships, Sick Character, The cashier is an asshole, Wonky android updates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:20:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24608347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrangeNoise/pseuds/StrangeNoise
Summary: When both Nines and Tina get sick Gavin has to go buy groceries for their household - something he doesn't like from the beginning and that only gets worse when an annoying cashier begins making demeaning comments about his relationship...
Relationships: Tina Chen/Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Kudos: 15





	Double the partners, double the love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Orangebubble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orangebubble/gifts).



> Prompt fill for Orangebubble (once again and there's more coming woop woop!) who asked for a cashier being rude about Gavin's poly relationship, Gavin taking care of his partners and then getting lots of cuddles! Hope everyone enjoys!

Gavin Reed hated grocery shopping. There was no particular reason or childhood trauma that made it so. Gavin just really didn’t care for the hustle and bustle in grocery stores, the grannies walking way too slowly in front of him and blocking entire aisles and the middle-aged mothers bumping into him from all sides to get to the freshest produce first. Whenever possible, Gavin avoided visiting supermarkets and if he was in a relationship he would gladly offer to do all other household duties if only his partners would relieve him of the burden of buying groceries.  
  
Usually, that worked pretty well and now that Gavin had two partners it was even easier to split the housework and shopping between them. But as it so happened, this week both Tina and Nines were sick. Tina had been hit hard by the flu and was in bed with a fever. Nines had recently gotten a new update that, apparently, caused problems in some models – including the RK900. He couldn’t really explain what was going on but he wasn’t feeling too well either and spent most of his time in stasis by Tina’s side, waiting until a fix for the update’s problems was released and he would be getting better.   
With both his partners sick and in bed, Gavin was the only one left to be able to buy groceries and as much as he hated it, there wasn’t really another option.   
  
So Gavin trudged his way through the aisles at the nearest supermarket, putting some things into his cart here and there and wishing that this whole agony would be over soon enough. By the time he got in line at the checkout, he was pretty on edge already and also quite sure he had forgotten several items in his haste to leave the place again. He could care less, however. He had the things he wanted to buy for Tina and Nines and if he had to order food for himself that would be fine too. Gavin just wanted to be out of this damn store and go back home to look after his sick partners.  
  
As he went to pay, he thought he had gotten through the worst of it. But then the cashier opened his mouth.

“For your girlfriend?”, he asked, nodding towards the bright pink box with wild berry tea. It was Tina’s favorite and since she didn’t have an appetite at the moment, it was the only thing Gavin could think about to bring back to cheer her up a little.   
  
“Yeah”, he replied, slightly irritated, “And the thirium’s for my boyfriend. Anything else you wanna know about the stuff I’m buying?”  
  
“A boyfriend and a girlfriend?”, the cashier commented, raising a brow as he fished out coins and bills to give Gavin his change, “Leave some for the rest of us, dude.”   
  
“What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?!”, Gavin growled his adrenaline and blood pressure spiking. The world had become much more accepting of all kinds of relationships since Gavin was born but, unfortunately, some close-minded individuals still took offense at what made others happy.   
  
“Calm down, man”, the guy said, putting down Gavin’s change and lifting his hands in defense, “All I’m saying is one partner’s enough. No need to hoard them. It’s not like you can actually, really love more than one person at the same time anyway. That whole poly thing is just an excuse to cheat but if you think you’re happy with that, go for it.”  
  
Gavin had half a mind to take a swing at that guy, his right hand already curling up into a fist. He’d had enough people tell him that something was wrong with him and that his relationship was sinful or weird or whatever word people chose for it. It had been going on for a while and most of the time Gavin had learned to ignore it. He knew that Nines and Tina loved him and that he loved them and that was all that mattered. But right now, with the people he loved suffering back at home and him stuck in an environment he hated, either way, that damn cashier rubbed him the wrong way and he was done with it.   
  
“Could you hurry up a little? Some of us have to be somewhere!”, a lady towards the back of the line called out. Gavin expected it to make him even angrier but instead, it distracted him from the cashier long enough to dull his anger down a little. Even though she was rude, the lady was right. Gavin had to be home to take care of his partners, not getting into trouble for beating up asshole cashiers at his local supermarket.  
  
Giving the young man one last angry glare, Gavin grabbed his change and the bags filled with his purchases and stormed out of the store. Back in the car, he slammed the bags into the backseat and turned the radio up as far as it would go. Gavin’s hands were shaking with how angry he was and his knuckles turned white from the force with which he grabbed the steering wheel. The detective allowed himself to sit in the car for a minute or two, letting the heavy bass and shrill guitars of whatever song was on the radio at the moment wash over him. It did little to calm him down but it managed to settle his nerves enough for him to feel comfortable driving.  
  
  
Around fifteen minutes later, Gavin returned to the flat he shared with Nines and Tina still fuming. He slammed the door shut behind himself and stomped into the kitchen to put the groceries into the fridge. Cartons and boxes were practically thrown into the fridge with Gavin not thinking about how much noise he was making. That was until a small voice piped up behind him.

“What’s going on, Gav?”, Tina asked. When Gavin turned around, she was still in her pajamas and a blanket was wrapped tightly around her. Gavin could see that she was shivering underneath and her eyes were no less glassy than they had been when he left.   
  
“Cashier was a dick”, the detective grumbled but put the next few grocery items back a little more carefully. He had already woken up Tina. No need to disturb Nines too.   
  
“I’m sorry”, Tina sighed and sniffled, “Next week I’ll be okay again and then I can go shopping again.”  
  
“It’s not your fault, Tee”, Gavin hurried to say, “The dude just made some unnecessary dumb comments about me having multiple partners and I almost lost it. Had nothing to do with me not liking grocery shopping.”

“What an asshat”, Tina muttered and rolled her eyes. It was a sign of how sick she was that this was the only thing she said. Usually, she was more than happy to join in on or at least listen to Gavin’s tirades. It was part of why they were such close friends. They got worked up about the same issues and could gossip about the same things for hours on end. Right now, however, Tina was sick and tired and not in the mood to get overly upset. 

“He really was”, Gavin said placatingly and walked towards her, “But we’ll talk about that another time. You go back to bed now.” He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around before gently pushing her back in the direction of the bedroom.  
  
“Don’t touch me. You’ll get sick!”, Tina complained, trying to shrug Gavin’s hands off with a whine. But Gavin didn’t let go until she was back in the bedroom and crawled back into bed. His gaze landed on Nines, who was still curled in on himself, his LED blinking yellow at his temple. He was unmoving as ever and didn’t react to Gavin in any way but the detective could still feel his unease. He had no idea what it was like to be sick as an android but from what Nines had described it sounded like the worst type of migraine. Suddenly, Gavin felt a wave of guilt wash over him from being so loud just minutes before. He would make sure to be more careful for the rest of the day.  
  
“I’ll make you some tea”, he whispered in Tina’s direction but the other didn’t answer beyond a ‘hm’.  
  
Gavin retreated to the kitchen and put the kettle on while putting the rest of the groceries away. All things considered, it took barely fifteen minutes to get everything ready. Still, Gavin had a feeling Tina wouldn’t drink the tea right away and so he put it in a thermos that he placed on the bedside table on her side of the bed together with her favorite mug. Before leaving the room Gavin pressed the backs of his fingers to Tina’s forehead for a moment to feel her temperature. It was still well above where it should be but she wasn’t burning up as much as she had been before. Gavin took that as a good sign and left the room with a hopeful smile on his face.   
  
  
The next day didn’t bring much change. Gavin once again offered to take a nightshift so he could be around and take care of his partners during the day. Most of the time, all three of them slept, however. Tina and Nines in the bedroom and Gavin, surrounded by cats, on the couch.   
  
On the third day, Tina’s fever finally broke and she was a little livelier than the past days. She was starting to regain her appetite and managed to stomach two slices of bread with her soup during lunch. Tina also stayed awake for the duration of a movie she watched with Gavin in the afternoon. By the time Gavin got ready to leave for work, Nines joined them on the sofa. His expression was blank and his voice staticky, but he told them that the reworked version of the last update had just been published and that he would download and install it overnight so he could be back to normal the next day. Gavin left for work with a good feeling about his partners’ health and returned to Nines fully restored and Tina well on the way to getting there.   
  
  
One week later, everything was back to normal in their shared flat. Gavin and Tina were taking dayshifts that week while Nines worked during the night. It was a little weird whenever they couldn’t all work together but they made it work. And the constant grin on Tina’s face and her frequent looks at her phone screen told Gavin that something was going on that required Nines to be home either way. So he didn’t feel too bad when the android wasn’t around to work with him.   
  
“I can’t wait for you to see what Nines and I prepared for you”, Tina said that evening after work as they walked up the stairs to their flat, “We both thought you deserved something nice after you took such good care of us last week so we organized a little something for you.”  
  
“Weird”, Gavin commented with a grin, “Didn’t know a blowjob required this much preparation.” Tina rolled her eyes and hit Gavin on the arm.  
  
“Get your mind out of the gutter, Reed”, she scolded, “Not everything is about sex. This is far more romantic.”   
  
“Now you’ve really piqued my curiosity, Tee”, Gavin shot back and was actually really excited as he unlocked the door and let them both into the flat.  
  
The lights in the living room were dimmed and the whole place looked changed. Nines had rearranged all their furniture around the couch to create a massive blanket fort that he now sat in front of like the world’s strangest bouncer and tried to keep the cats out.   
  
“We made your favorite food for dinner and we’re watching one of your favorite movies”, Tina explained as she and Gavin walked further into the room, “And we thought it would be much cooler if we did all of this in a blanket fort. We used to make those a lot when we were younger and Nines has never been in one so that was a great opportunity.”  
  
Gavin couldn’t stop a truly ridiculous grin from spreading on his face. This probably wasn’t what other people would describe as romantic but he absolutely loved the idea. Back in the day, he and Tina had really built blanket forts for whatever reason but at some point, it had just become too exhausting to put everything up and then take it back down again soon after. Gavin would never have admitted it, but it was something he had been missing for a while now. For one, it brought back a ton of good memories. And then it allowed him to spend some time being physically close to the people he loved most in the world – something he had sorely missed in the past week when they had been sick and he couldn’t really go near them.   
  
“This is so cool”, Gavin muttered, his voice giving out on him before he pulled Tina into a kiss and then dropped to his knees to kiss Nines too. The android then guided him into the fort and Gavin couldn’t deny that he was impressed. The construct was spacious enough to hold him, Nines and Tina, and possibly even the cats. There were blankets spread out on the floor and pillows scattered all over them to make the whole thing even more comfortable. The ceiling was one of their massive three-person blankets from the bed that was thick enough to block out all light that could possibly shine into the fort. Once they turned off the lights in the room, it would be almost impossible to see the inside of the fort.  
  
At the mouth of it, Nines had placed a large tray that was carefully balanced on some books and served as a table. There were knives and forks for Gavin and Tina and bowls of candy and chips next to them.  
  
“Not bad for a first try”, Gavin told Nines as he crawled back to the front of the fort and pressed a kiss to the android’s cheek, “You’ll have to drag me out of there later if you want me to leave.”   
  
Nines chuckled and opened his mouth to say something but before he could get anything out, Tina rejoined them with two plates full of food she must have gotten from the kitchen. On them were two massive portions of Gavin’s favorite veggie lasagna and the detective’s mouth watered at the sight of it alone.  
  
“Damn, you’re spoiling me today”, he commented as Tina put the plates down and then squeezed into the fort with Gavin and Nines, “If it didn’t mean you guys would have to get sick more, I’d wish for this to happen more often.”  
  
“Maybe you could just try being nice for once and we’ll feel more inclined to do nice things for you in turn”, Nines retorted and Gavin stuck his tongue out to him. The bickering and arguing among them was a remnant of the early days of their work relationship that had transpired into their private life as well. These days, it usually didn’t mean anything and was only used to irritate the other a little or make a joke here and there. But Gavin still enjoyed it. It was like their own little language of love and he knew for a fact that Nines thought of it that way too.  
  
The three of them bickered back and forth between them while Gavin and Tina ate and Nines, for lack of anything better to do, petted the cats that were still trying to climb into the fort behind them. By the time the humans were done with their dinner, Nines had lost his patience and given up on his endeavor to keep the cats out of the blanket fort. As it turned out, there was something inside there they didn’t trust either way so after Nines had put in so much effort in keeping the cats out of the fort, they left it again on their own not two minutes after they had first climbed in. Gavin and Tina laughed at Nines’ irritation, poking fun at the android, who still didn’t really understand how animals “worked”.  
  
Then, dinner was done and they finally all settled down inside the fort. Nines moved the tv so that it was right at the exit and started the film. It was one of Gavin’s favorites but he didn’t really pay attention to it. For one, he already knew it almost by heart. And then he was far too busy enjoying how close he was to Nines and Tina. Early on, Gavin had managed to curl in on himself in a way that allowed him to place his head in Nines’ lap. Without needing to be asked, the androids had buried his fingers in Gavin’s hair and gently scratched his scalp. That alone was enough to make Gavin feel like he had died and gone to heaven. But then Tina had climbed over him, planting herself on top of him in a position that had to be terribly uncomfortable for her but meant that Gavin was getting a lot of body warmth and if there was something he loved it was that.  
  
So here Gavin was, in a blanket fort in the middle of the living room and surrounded by the people he loved and who loved him in turn. His mind wandered back to the rude cashier from the week before for a moment and anger threatened to overtake Gavin once again. But then he thought about how much better he had it than this guy. He had not one but two people, who loved and cherished him dearly and who wanted to be close to him. Gavin was wrapped up in their love and he could feel it with every touch. And suddenly, at this moment, all he worried about was that he couldn’t give back enough, not make Nines and Tina feel as loved as he did. Because they made Gavin feel so much and, really, that was all that mattered. It was more than that cashier would ever have and that thought soothed Gavin’s anger.   
  
He allowed himself to sink back into the embrace of his partners and just enjoy the moment, feeling well and truly loved. No one had ever made Gavin feel like this and if he had anything to say about it, things would stay like this forever. Because Gavin loved Nines and Tina and they loved him and no one could change that – least of all some snotty cashier.


End file.
